Mexico City. High-risk pregnant women who experience preeclampsia will usually be given a supplement to be consumed. The study found that this supplement was also able to protect pregnant women from disease.

In the British Medical Journal study revealed that the presence of amino acids and antioxidant vitamins in this supplement may help fight abnormal high blood pressure during pregnancy.

Preeclampsia is a serious condition where pregnant women have abnormally high blood pressure and other problems that can develop during pregnancy. This condition affects about 10 percent of all first pregnancies and can be dangerous for both mother and child.

The occurrence of preeclampsia is considered related to the problem of shortage of the amino acid L-arginine, an amino acid that helps maintain blood flow to stay healthy.

This study was conducted by researchers in Mexico and the United States involving more than 600 pregnant women. And known groups of pregnant women who take supplements with L-arginine and antioxidants were significantly less likely to experience preeclampsia compared with a group of pregnant women who consume only one or none at all.

These results indicate that taking a relatively low cost supplement may reduce the risk of preeclampsia and preterm delivery associated with this condition.

“This is the starting point to see pre-eclampsia and significant health risk that it becomes important to be resolved, but it remains to be investigated further to see the side effects of supplements,” says Gail Johnson, professor obstetrics at the Royal College of Midwives, as quoted by BBC News Friday (05/20/2011).

In previous studies had carried out tests on L-arginine and vitamins separately, it showed a small effect, so this result is interesting because after combined appear to have a major effect in preventing preeclampsia and related diseases.